The 2025 Fred Page Cup playoffs are well underway. This year, the format had the top eight teams in each conference making the playoffs, but that wasn’t always the case.
Over the last six seasons, the BCHL has used three different playoff formats. For the 2020 playoffs, the Victoria Grizzlies served as a crossover team and faced Salmon Arm in the first round.
Two years later, the league reverted to the top eight teams making the playoffs. Last season, the B.C. and Alberta-based teams played a separate postseason. The champions from each province played for the Rocky Mountain Challenge.
This article will examine the three playoff formats the BCHL has used in the last half-dozen seasons. I’ll start with the crossover format used before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The crossover team format
Before COVID-19 shut things down, BCHL teams were divided into three divisions. The Island and Mainland Divisions contained five teams, while the Interior Division had seven. With 17 teams and 16 available spots, only one team missed the playoffs.
Since Victoria and Prince George finished with better records, Merritt was the lone team that didn’t make the postseason. Both the Grizzlies and Spruce Kings were fifth in their respective divisions and ended up being the crossover teams.
In the first round, Prince George played the Trail Smoke Eaters, and the Grizz locked horns with the Silverbacks. Both PG and Victoria were swept in four games.
During the 2019 playoffs, Cowichan Valley was the crossover team, and the Capitals upset the first-place Penticton Vees in the first round. The Caps lost to the Wenatchee Wild in the second round.
This playoff format is unique in that it allows teams near the bottom of the standings to make the playoffs. It’s similar to the National Hockey League’s wildcard format for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The top eight format
After several COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted, the BCHL adjusted its playoff format for the 2021-22 season. The Cranbrook Bucks had joined the BCHL as an expansion franchise, allowing the league to realign.
The Coastal Conference and the Interior Conference each contained nine teams. The top eight teams made the playoffs, and only Merritt and Powell River missed the postseason that season.
After the 2023 playoffs, the Wenatchee Wild left the BCHL and took over the relocated Winnipeg Ice of the Western Hockey League. The BCHL’s 1 vs. 8 format stayed in place until last year’s playoffs.
The B.C.-Alberta playoffs
Midway through the 2023-24 season, the BCHL announced that five Alberta-based teams were joining the league immediately.
This announcement prompted the Alberta Junior Hockey League to suspend the five franchises and as a result, Blackfalds, Brooks, Okotoks, Sherwood Park, and Spruce Grove couldn’t finish their regular season in the AJHL. That’s when the BCHL stepped in and the league admitted the five teams right away. For the next several months, they played games exclusively against each other.
In the playoffs, the top eight B.C.-based teams in each conference played against each other while the Alberta-based teams faced each other.
After the dust settled, the Surrey Eagles were the B.C.-based Fred Page Cup champions. In Alberta, the Brooks Bandits won the Alberta Cup championship. Surrey and Brooks met in the best-of-three Rocky Mountain Challenge, where the Bandits swept the Eagles in two games.
The future
Nobody knows what the future holds for the BCHL. With the Penticton Vees leaving for the WHL, we could see another realignment of teams.
Graham Fraser still owns the franchise rights to the former BCHL Vees. He could relocate the team and balance the two conferences.
In 2017, the West Kelowna Warriors nearly relocated to North Delta but the league’s governors voted it down. That relocation would’ve led to a division realignment for the BCHL. Could another realignment occur in the future?
We’ll see where the Vees land in the near future and see how it may affect the division alignments going forward.
